Wednesday, December 31, 2008

NexusLast night was a big one for me. After a very good Heroic Nexus PUG run, I was invited to my first Naxx run.

I had reservations about going -- my stupid insecurities about my playing ability. Yeah, yeah, I know, even after countless times being told "great heals", "you're an awesome healer", etc, I still feel inadequate. In TBC I stepped into Kara with my Hunter a few times then at the end I healed with my priest once. The healing went horribly, though to this day I'm not sure if it was because of my lack of skill/gear or the combination of everyone's lack of gear. So, my experience so far with raiding has been fun, but emotionally stressful. (Note: I did go on an Obsidian Sanctum run a few weeks ago and found it extremely easy. So, technically, that was my first raid in Wrath.)

But, I overcame my fears and decided to give it a shot. I am sooo glad I did. It was a great experience.

First stop -- finding the darned place. Who knew it was up in the air and you had to enter from underneath? LOL.

Vault of ArchavonSecond stop - change of plans. Alliance just gained control of Wintergrasp, so we were off to kill the raid boss there, Archavon. When the decision was being made whether or not to go to Wintergrasp I almost took the opportunity to wimp out. I was sure there was going to be tons of PVP (which I hate!), so that was going to be enough ruin my evening. But, I clenched my jaw and decided to roll with it. What the heck? I was in a group of 10 people, surely they were going to protect the squishy priestess?

Well, to my pleasant surprise, I found out that there was no PVP involved. Just get to Wintergrasp, enter the portal, enter the instance, kill a few trash mobs, then kill the boss. It was a great warmup for Naxx. I was reminded of how well I can heal and how easy it is for me to catch on to strategies. So...I have to wonder, why do I always doubt my abilities? Though, I do have to say that healing is probably easier, strategy-wise, than tanking or DPSing. We heal damage. What is actually going on in a fight is of concern to us, of course, but we're less focused on how and what is being attacked than the rest of the players.

The drop: Cloth! But, Warlock only. Darn!

NaxxramasFinal stop - Naxxramas! The sounds, the music, the visuals. Extremely beautiful. And the encounters were tons of fun. I was put on raid healing, and I'm proud to say that in the whole night there were only a few deaths. I wasn't complimented on my healing, but I was asked to come back to finish it later this week. So, I guess I did well enough. :)

We cleared the Arachnid Quarter and the Plague Quarter up to Noth the Plaguebringer. I found all the encounters easy except the Noth one. And that one wasn't difficult really, just a pain in the rear to heal all the AoE damage. So, either everyone else was overgeared, or I'm an adequate to good healer. :-)

I can't wait to go back. I'm so glad to have gotten over this fear of Naxx.

As for loot, no other cloth items dropped for the rest of the night. But, no complaints from me. I saw exciting new content, made a bunch of new friends, and got a few emblems of honor. An excellent night, I would say!Oh...and my stupid mace didn't drop in Nexus again! Why? Why? Why?

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

DailiesLast night I spent most of my time on my priest. I did several dailies, including the couple that could lead to the White Polar Bear mount -- no luck.

Heroic Nexus PugI also did a PUG Heroic Nexus run. It was a mess from the beginning. The main tank and his RL brother (dps druid) were AFK at the summoning stone for what seemed like forever. I did the "harpoon the drake" daily while I waited. I was about to leave when they finally came back.

No apology, no explanation.

We got inside and the MT's computer crashed. A couple more minutes...

We got to the first boss in the hallway, the guy who whirlwinds everyone to death. Suddenly my mouse started giving out. I could barely get my healing spells off. Interesting thing was...despite many spells never actually casting, I healed fine. Makes me wonder if I generally over heal. I'll have to experiment a little more with that.Anyway...after rebooting and getting my mouse problems "fixed", we did the second boss -- the one who currently drops the santa hat -- then went on to the tree boss. My mouse died again, but I still healed fine with no deaths. Miracle of miracles.

After that...the MT's computer died. We waited for about 5 minutes while his brother explained what was going on. But, I decided to bail. It was the slowest PUG I've ever been on, due to external factors. Computer and mouse problems are forgivable. But general AFKness with no apology or explanation -- rudeness to the extreme.

WoWHead ClientBesides that, I installed the WoWHead client last night. I figured I use the site so much, I might as well contribute to it.

Guild StuffNothing happened in guild...really, nothing at all. Only 4 of us were on and no one was interacting at all. Slow night overall.

For those who happen to run across this BLOG, I figured I'd introduce myself. I'm a World of Warcraft ("WoW") player living with my husband in the North Eastern United States. This BLOG is really for me to chronicle my experiences in WoW for myself. I never plan on revealing who I am, which toons are mine or even which server I play on. Since this is really just for me, I don't need to add those details. Protect the innocent and all that.

My main toon is a Holy Priest, with my Hunter and Mage as my favorite alts. Most of my posts will be about my experiences with those characters. But, occasionally I will mention another alt or even something going on in my personal life.

If you find yourself reading my BLOG, please feel free to say "hi". But, I'm not here to have discussions or read other people's opinions, especially if they disagree with my own. :-)